Nelson was offered a 1 year deal for 14 million dollars earlier during winter meetings, he had no intentions of signing that deal. If Nelson wanted to be part of the Rangers, he would have appealed his suspension last season and finished the final 50 games with Texas, which could have propelled them into the playoffs instead of playing the final 50 games without their best offensive weapon. So I'm not going to say J.D. screwed up by not signing him, because like I said I don't think he intended on coming back anyways.
Nelson turned down a better offer in Seattle. Seattle's SafeCo field is not a very hitter friendly ballpark, which leads me to believe he was not holding out to be picky, but looking for the perfect fit.
Nelson is going to get paid eventually. If you look at the power numbers for DH's over the last 10 years, the numbers are down a great deal. Last season only 3 DH's hit over 20 HR's and in 2011 only 2 hit more than 20. The power DH is hard to come by these days, and Nelson Cruz is one of those few and far between players. Nelson hit 27 HR's last season in just over 400 at bats. That is an average of 1 HR every 15 plate appearances, one ever 3-4 games, or 1 every series. However you want to look at it, it's pretty impressive.
Does it suck to not have this guy in the lineup this season? Yes. Is it a killer? No. Nelson signed with a team in another division, which happens to be in my opinion the most competitive in the MLB. The only time we will play meaningful games against Baltimore is if we run across them in the Playoffs, since the only time we will see them is in early June and late June.
Nelson is going to command a lot of money next season if he has a big year this year. Should the Rangers have tried harder to resign him? No. They made a great offer/the greatest to a guy coming off a PED suspension and he turned them down. They filled his position in RF with Alex Rios and DH with Mitch Moreland who we will finally find out if he has what it takes to be an everyday player in this league and Michael Choice who has a lot of potential and who I believe will eventually be the everyday Right Fielder. I honestly think it is better getting Cruz out of here now rather than hold on for one more season with him and either A) stunting the growth of younger players and B) not finding out what some guys like Mitch Moreland really are.
My predictions for Nelly- 34 Home Runs 88 RBI and a .269 Batting Average on a Orioles team who I think will finish 2nd in their division with a 91-71 record.
My prediction for the Rangers................. Coming Soon!
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